Evans is plotting another Fiji shock

A globe-trotting Welshman has become a major part of Fiji‘s grand plan to make World Cup history repeat itself against Wales come September.

Mark Evans, formerly director of rugby at Saracens and chief executive of Harlequins, is a central figure in the South Pacific island’s strategy aimed at ensuring they are in better shape for reaching the knock-out stages in France this autumn than at any previous tournament.

As chief executive of the country’s Super Rugby franchise, Fijian Drua, Evans is in constant dialogue with Fiji’s head coach Simon Raiwalui, a quarter-finalist against England at Twickenham in 1999 during his time as captain of Newport immediately before regionalisation.

Wales have been in a state of some long-term anxiety about Fiji ever since they last collided at a World Cup, in Nantes 16 years ago when the South Sea Islanders knocked Wales out 38-36 in a classic. Wales sacked head coach Gareth Jenkins the next morning.

Globe-trotting Evans is plotting another Fiji shock

Now, ironically, the ‘Flying Fijians’ are relying on the expertise of a former schoolteacher from Cardiff whom Wales interviewed three years earlier as one of two candidates. Jenkins was the other.

“Simon and I speak on a regular basis, two or three times a week about various things affecting the national team,” Evans told The Rugby Paper from Suva. “Two of my assistant coaches are on the national team staff for the World Cup and I will be there if needed.

“Simon is an excellent selector which is arguably the most important single quality of an international coach, the ability to pick the right player in the right place for the right match.

“We have 13 or 14 players in the Fijian Drua whom we think are in contention for the World Cup. Fiji have never gone to a World Cup with nearly half their squad training and playing together on a full-time basis.

“That will make a massive difference. There are other big plusses. We have five matches before the World Cup – Japan, Samoa, England, France, Tonga – and that should make this squad the best-prepared Fiji have ever had for a World Cup.

“It’s in France where a lot of Fijians play week in, week out. If they are injury-free, it will be a pretty tidy outfit with not too many obvious weaknesses.

“It will be a squad with a lot of talent. In addition to the more established players, some wonderful young players are breaking through like Sireli Maqala at Bayonne.”

Evans’ career has taken him a long way since starting with junior club St Peter’s in his native Cardiff. A pioneer of the nascent pro game, first as director of rugby at Saracens, then as chief executive of Harlequins, he had spells in Australia, Union and League, before resurfacing in Fiji.

Along the way, he was interviewed twice by the WRU in 2004 as one of two candidates alongside Jenkins for the head coach vacancy left by Steve Hansen’s return to New Zealand. Neither got the job, Wales opting for Mike Ruddock instead.

More recently, he twice applied to be the WRU’s chief executive only for each application to fall on deaf ears. “I applied because the position became vacant,” he says. “I didn’t get called on either occasion. That’s the way it goes.”